Hertz puts cameras in some of its rental cars, but it never meant to be creepy

A handful of Hertz' vehicles include a feature for the (dystopian) future.

Last week, Fusion reported that Hertz had been updating the navigational devices in its rental cars to include cameras that have a full view of the interior of the vehicle. The update, which began in mid-2014, happened quietly and so far has only impacted about thirteen percent of Hertz' fleet. Still, that number troubled those who noticed the tiny unblinking eye staring back at them.

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But Hertz has maintained that the cameras are nothing for customers to fear. Last week, a representative told Fusion that the cameras will eventually be used for customers to video chat with a customer service representative in the event that they get into an accident or have other issues. At that time, the camera would only be turned on by the push of a button from the car driver. But at the moment, that feature is not functional, the company said.

“We do not have adequate bandwidth capabilities to the car to support streaming video at this time,” Hertz said. Instead Hertz began installing cameras on its navigational devices, called NeverLost, to prepare for an indeterminate time in the future when activating such a feature makes economic sense.

Still, software can be rewritten to change the purpose of the hardware. How might a person know if they're being spied on by a company concerned for its vehicle? (True, you could always travel with a roll of tape to put over the lens.)

In a Tuesday response to Fusion, Hertz and its engineers maintained that they've gone to great lengths to protect their customers' privacy. An anonymous engineer wrote in saying that he or she had worked on NeverLost 6—the version with the camera—and alleged that “there was a lot of discussion during the development about how to not creep out customers.”

According to the source, the NeverLost 6 camera includes an electronically blacked-out glass cover, so when the camera isn't in use, it can't see inside the cabin. Also, the camera is mounted on a turret in the device, and customers can turn a knob to make the camera face the side of the unit. “It appears that [Hertz] have shot themselves in the foot with the blacked out glass not allowing the user to see that there is a physical barrier preventing someone from watching you,” the engineer said.

Rich Broome, the head of communications for Hertz, also told Fusion that Hertz began putting the cameras in its cars because it thought it would be economically efficient to get one step ahead of a possible trend. But since the cameras can not be used yet, the company didn't mention anything about their debut because "It would be confusing to talk to customers about something they can’t currently use about which no decision has been made to even activate,” said Broome by phone.

Broome added that if customers are uncomfortable driving with a deactivated camera in their rental car, they can request another car.

As car makers and rental companies race to make their fleets more and more technologically current, cameras have posed a notable problem. Corvette made headlines in 2014 when its parent company, GM, sent letters to new owners saying that use of its cars' valet-recording tech might be considered a felony in some states, where recording a person without their explicit knowledge is illegal.